The Little World of Barnum T Jugbat

Greene King IPA, when well kept, it is a good beer. Unfortunately, as it sits as a token real ale on many bars, most pubs don’t look after it properly.
It isn’t an IPA by any definition but then when we’re breweries compelled to name beers within defined styles. Others are equally guilty.
There is no such traditional style as a Black IPA. It is a nonsense and despite several attempts I have yet to have one that I found satisfactory. The style needs defining and renaming or the beers fitting into an existing style. Most of the ones I’ve had seem to be a poor attempt at a Porter.
I don’t want to be draconian about beer styles, common sense and goodwill should be applied to slotting beers in the existing styles. The CAMRA beer style definitions are a good start to begin a common industry wide guide to styles. I would hate to see the American system which seems to work on the basis of ‘brew a beer, invent a style ‘.
Anyway, I seem to have progressed from my original intention to defend Greene King IPA from those who see no good in anything from that brewery. There is, like Wetherspoons, both good and bad in the company. The good is that the brewers, if left to their own devices, brew some great beers. The bad is quality control at point of sale and the awful practice of naming their beers after breweries they have taken over and closed. Mind you, the last two are industry wide issues.